Bloomberg School of Public Health
Advisory Board Meeting Minutes
Thursday, February 21, 2002 | 3 p.m. | 857th Meeting

Members Absent: Drs. William Brody, Miriam Alexander, Diane Griffin, John Groopman, Edward Miller, and Noel Rose.

Guests: Drs. Judith Kasper, Joanne Katz, and Sharon Krag; Prof. Stephen Teret; Mr. Herbert Hansen; and Ms Diane Glover.

Meeting Convened: Provost Knapp convened the meeting at 3:00 p.m.

Approval of the Minutes: Minutes of the 856th meeting on January 24, 2002 were approved.

Remarks by the Provost

Provost Knapp welcomed Dr. Hill, interim dean of the School of Nursing, to the Advisory Board. He then reported on the status of three University-wide searches. Finalists for the deanship of University Libraries have been interviewed, and the SAIS and School of Nursing searches are underway. Dr. Knapp reported that Dr. McCarty is eager to return to his research so has elected to step down from the deanship of the School of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Daniel Weiss, formerly Dean of the Faculty at the School of Arts and Sciences, will become Dean, effective July 1, 2002.

Dr. Knapp reported on activities in Annapolis during the Maryland legislative session around capital project requests and State aid to private colleges.

Remarks by the Dean

Dean Sommer reported that Sir David Weatherall, who was at the center of the recognition of thalassemia, will visit the School on May 30, 2002. Faculty interested in meeting with him should contact the Dean's Office.

Dr. Busch-Vishniac has indicated interest in developing joint educational programs with the School of Engineering in "the environment," particularly Bachelors/Masters degrees programs.

Dr. Sommer reported that 2 School-wide review committees have recently been formed. The Committee to Review the Department of Environmental Health Sciences will be chaired by Dr. Gary Ketner. The Committee to Review the DrPH Program will be chaired by Dr. Donna Strobino, who was instrumental in reconfiguring the DrPH Program 5 years ago. Several public health practitioners who are also alumni of the School will serve on that Committee.

Dr. Sommer commented that the role and visibility of the behavioral and social sciences in the School would be examined by a faculty committee. Increased emphasis on methodologic and basic areas and recruitment of a few more faculty in these areas are one possible outcome.

Remarks by the Faculty Senate

Dr. Links reported that the Faculty Senate has formed an ad hoc committee to follow up on recommendations of the Strategic Plan to support junior faculty in their career development. Senate recommendations will be presented at the next joint Faculty Senate/Committee of the Whole meeting, and the status of the Strategic Plan recommendations for the Senate will be reviewed at the next Faculty General Assembly meeting.

New Activities and Publications of the Faculty

Dean Sommer commented on the need to be proactive about publications and activities of the faculty in ways that make these of interest to donors, alumni, and the public. Dr. Sommer challenged the members of the Advisory Board to find mechanisms to meet this opportunity to continue engendering public support of BSPH activities.

Other items

Center for Law and the Public's Health

Professor Teret, co-director of the Center for Law and the Public's Health, joined the Advisory Board. The Center was initially developed in response to a CDC RFP and is the only CDC-funded Center whose mission is to increase research and training of the public health workforce in public health law. Immediately after September 11, the Center's mission was modified by the CDC to focus on "preparedness." The Center developed a model law for states to use in taking extraordinary powers during extraordinary circumstances by balancing the need to interrupt disease transmission with the desire to preserve individual dignity and civil liberties. The model law or modified versions have now been introduced in about half of the states.

The Center is now developing its agenda, and there are many areas to explore by way of research and training, although it will continue to focus on preparedness for terrorism events as one part of its mission. The Center is a joint effort of the BSPH and the Georgetown Law Center, which share a number of long-standing activities. Professors Gostin and Teret are co-directors of the Center. Dr. Sommer commented that this Center is one of 4 CDC-funded centers in the School in which preparedness is a focus or main component of their mission. The faculty affiliated with each center will come together and assess areas of synergy and efficiency. After further discussion, the Advisory Board thanked Prof. Teret for sharing information and the early successes of the new Center.

Faculty Salary Analysis, 2001-02

Dr. Kasper joined the Advisory Board, and noted that the Committee on Affirmative Action annually requests that Dr. Zeger complete the analysis of faculty salaries to assess any differences by gender or minority status. Dr. Zeger then reported on the data and analytic methods of the analysis, and then reviewed the results of the 2001-02 analysis. He noted that women and minority faculty tend to be at lower ranks, and that male faculty are more likely to be physicians. Scientist track faculty are not included in the analysis, but research and public health professorial faculty are included. The regression analysis takes into account demographic information so that salary differences between men and women, and between minority and non-minority faculty can be examined, but "performance measures" (e.g. numbers of papers, level of funding) are not taken into account.

Dr. Zeger found no evidence of salary differences by gender in 2001-02. He noted that salary differences by gender in recent years were in the upper half the adjusted salary distribution, but that the salary distribution is now virtually identical by gender. He reported that salaries of minority faculty continue, on average, to be lower than those of non-minority faculty all along the continuum. Because the number of under-represented minority faculty is too small to permit meaningful analyses using the current method, Dr. Zeger recommended that salaries be examined individually.

Dr. Zeger suggested that a longitudinal analysis can be appropriate when there are multiple years of data to examine trends over time. He then reviewed a preliminary longitudinal analysis of professorial faculty salaries over the past 3 years. The Committee on Affirmative Action has requested that both cross-sectional and longitudinal salary analyses be conducted for a few years, after which the longitudinal analysis should be completed.

Dr. Kasper recognized the chairs and administration of the School for significant improvements in salary equity by gender over the past few years. The Committee on Affirmative Action will continue to monitor professorial faculty salaries. Dr. Sommer commented that the salaries of every minority professorial faculty member is being examined on a case-by-case basis with the appropriate department chair.

Dr. Knapp asked if salary equity is affected when there are increases due to retention. Dr. Sommer commented that in general, the School's philosophy is not to provide extreme increases in retention cases, specifically due to a desire to preserve equity.

Dr. Knapp thanked Drs. Zeger and Kasper for this important continuing initiative.

Revisions of Faculty PPM #2 on Sabbatical Leave - For Vote

Ms. Fox briefly reviewed the proposed revision of the Faculty PPM on sabbatical leave, which makes the PPM consistent with current practice. She circulated summary statistics on the number of faculty who have taken sabbaticals, and their departments, and commented that approximately one-third of tenure-track and tenured faculty have taken advantage of this benefit. The Advisory Board acknowledged Dr. Black and the Committee on Finance for developing the mini-sabbatical program.

The Advisory Board voted to approve Faculty PPM #2 on Sabbatical Leave.

Draft Revisions of Faculty PPM #1 on Appointments, Promotion and Professional Activities of the Faculty

Dr. Sommer commented that we now have several years of experience with the present version of Faculty PPM #1, and that there are some good reasons to revisit it. Many faculty have been appointed to the non-tenure professorial track, which continues to expand. Dr. Sommer noted that it was not the initial intent for non-tenure-track professorial faculty to develop programmatic independence, and that this change has substantial implications for the growth and direction of the entire School.

Simultaneously, some chairs have requested that the requirement for a national search for non-tenure track professorial faculty be dropped as these faculty are generally recruited to work on existing funded projects, which may not then afford the time and expense needed for a national search. Reconciling these two developments was important. Dr. Sommer commented that programmatic independence is not the same as scholarly independence, and suggested that non-tenure-track professorial faculty should be discouraged from acting as principal investigators. Several chairs noted that faculty at all ranks will have gaps in finding that may need to be filled by acting as principal investigators.

Dr. Steinwachs felt that linking the activities of non- tenure track professorial faculty to those of the tenure- track is important, as is the need to be clear about the expectations and responsibilities of all faculty. The Committee on Appointments and Promotions has also expressed confusion over the differing uses of the non-tenure-track titles in some of the departments.

The Advisory Board then reviewed proposed revisions of Faculty PPM #1 drafted by Dean Sommer to begin this discussion. A number of specific suggestions were made to clarify the PPM. One change proposed is that national searches would be conducted for non-tenure-track professorial faculty "when feasible" rather than being required. Dr. Sommer reviewed the rationale for this proposed change. Dr. Zeger suggested reviewing the most recent appointments to the non-tenure-professorial track to assess how the searches were conducted.

Another change proposed by Dean Sommer was to limit the proportion of non-tenure track or untenured professorial faculty relative to tenure-track or tenured professorial faculty. This proposed change engendered much discussion with respect to student instruction/advising and management of the School. Dr. Steinwachs noted that non-tenure-track professorial faculty are concentrated in 3 or 4 departments. Dr. Sommer asked the chairs of these departments (Epidemiology, Health Policy and Management, International Health, and Population and Family Health Sciences) to review the proposed PPM as a group and provide suggestions about how to assure and manage a balance of tenure-track and non- tenure track faculty in their departments as decisions about recruitment in one or a few departments have ramifications for the entire School.

After further discussion, a revised draft of the PPM, based on comments by members of the Advisory Board, will be circulated for review and discussion at the March Advisory Board meeting. Input from the Faculty Senate and the Committee on Appointments and Promotions will subsequently be sought.

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 5 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Robin Fox

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Last updated 06Apr02 by dgips@jhu.edu